In the latter portion of 1990 while reading a number of wargame magazines and while following the progress of NCAA Basketball (both being as one can easily see are secret passions of mine), a sudden realization occurred to me that some of the most successful wargame conventions are those that hold national championships. The success of Historican is a prime example with the numbers drawn to the North American Society of Ancients & Medieval Wargamers (NASAMW) championship tournament held every summer. The logical deduction then was to upgrade our (Heart of American historical Miniature Gaming Society... HAHMGS) spring convention "Call to Arms" to elite status by putting on a national championship.
The first problem of course was to find a period in history that was both unique enough not to step on any other organization's toes, and yet broad enough that most convention Boers would have background/interest enough to be willing to participate. Well, after a prolonged period of deep meditation and semi-serious deliberations (as close as I ever get), the decision was made to hold our first national championship in the genre of 25mm western gunfight. Oh, pooh, you say! That's not a realistic, historic period of military history. Aha, I say! What better place to hold such a true art form as a face-to-face, toe-to-toe, guns-a-blazin wargame than right here in the biggest cow-town in the world! Why, even the esteemed Howard Cosell stated on national television that the most unique thing about doing a K.C. Royals' game was watching the cattle grazing across 1-70!
Well, with that out of the way, it now became necessary to choose the format for our tournament. Pondering this question while watching Kansas lose the big one at the NCAA finals, I was suddenly struck by divine inspiration. Aha! A single elimination four-roan team tournament, where every wound point carries through to the championship. In addition, winners of each level (preliminary, quarter-final, semi-final, and finals) would be determined by the number of wound points inflicted versus received.
Thus, the four-men teams would each have X-number of points and at the end of each game, the team that lost the most would be the loser. To make this fair then, all teams used the same four characters which were pre-rolled, but unnamed and weaponless. Weapons then were given as a list of pre-set pistols, rifles, shotguns and knives to Dick from and share. Careful selection of who received whatt became very important based on each character's abilities. Further, assignment of characters to team numbers became important as to who could best put to use each character's assets and liabilities.
Once the above was "loosely" arranged, the most important step in acquiring our National Eliteness rating was to develop the name, title, and/or moniker of our championship. It obviously would have to be something unique and memorable. So, pulling a lead from our ancient brethren, the event was to become the first annual National Association of Western Gun Fight War Gaming Enthusiasts, or NAWGFWGE (pronounced: NAWGFWGE) Championship. Selecting a set of rules was the next step. This was easy for me, as having enjoyed this type of gaming for years and collecting many different sets, only one was quick-play enough in my mind to suit our needs. This was the 1975 set of Boot Hill Rules released by T.S.R. Having been out of production for many years, I figured almost everyone would be equally unfamiliar with them. The important sections of these rules were placed on a single legal-sized sheet of paper to be handed out to the entering teams early in the convention. This would allow the members time to study them, and to enhance the facilitation of play at the tournament.
As at this pre-tournament stage NAWGFWGE had only one member...me. The next stage was pre-tournament publicity, so we would have some teams entered. Of course, I was quickly able to put two teams together out of my reluctant fellow members of HATSOFF. After much grumbling and aspersions to my proper parentage, they caved in as usual and agreed to participate. Soon I was able to get other local clubs to enter by appea:lling to their natural desire to "whip-up" on the old men of HATSOFF. Notices then went out in the H.A.H.M.G.S. communique and to the bulletin boards of local hobby stores. Finally, notice was posted at the convention registration desk and by tournament time, we had 36 wargamers ready to test their skills in the streets of No-Name City.
The tournament itself went off without a hitch (get it?) and games were limited to 1-1/2 hours so people wouldn't just run around and hide from each other. People quickly picked up on tactical ideas such as supporting or covering fire as well as such things as massed fire attacks. Others never learned anything except how to run as fast as they could as long as they could until they were ambushed or shot in the back! As the tournament progressed through the rounds, it was interesting to watch the subleties of players' styles develop. Also, the attrition rate on character points was amazing. So much so that when we got to the championship round, each of the finalist teams only had one player left. I think what really surprised me about the whole thing was how much fun everyone had (except for Ken VanPelt who was killed on Turn One of his _preliminary round and never got to fire a shot ... sorry, Ken, maybe next year); when what I .started out to do was play one of those little jokes on some people whom I believe take our hobby way too seriously.
The final winner and championship gunfighter of the 1st Annual NAWGFWGE tournament was and is Paul "Smiley" Lichteig. When he shines those "pearly-whites" at you, it's a good bet there will be some lead flying in your direction, so don't cross, pardner! Thanks for listening!
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